The collection is S.M.A.K.’s DNA and reflects the museum’s core identity as the pivot between recent art history and current trends. S.M.A.K.’s acquisition policy has developed organically over the years and has three distinct levels. Firstly, the museum strives to form an ensemble around the oeuvre of a select group of artists. Instead of representing an artist with just a single work, S.M.A.K. aims to collect an oeuvre in depth in order to present it in all its complexity. Secondly, there is a substantial interaction with the temporary exhibitions, which can be seen as the engine of the collection policy. Finally, by acquiring the work of emerging artists the museum attempts to give a major boost to further developing young artistic practices. Thus, through expanding clusters, S.M.A.K. seeks to arrive at constellations which enter into dialogue with each other within the collection.

Presenting a collection of works can be seen as a way of examining the individuality of the S.M.A.K. collection. Within S.M.A.K. the collection presentations are never planned from a chronological or art-historical perspective but from the position where the artist and his work stand centre stage. ‘Tomorrow is the Question’ presents a selection from S.M.A.K.’s recent acquisitions since 2005. The exhibition, after ‘Something Else!!!!’ (presentation of some seventy collection works in MAN in Nuoro in 2009) and ‘Change of the Century’ (collection presentation at Centrum Kunstlicht in de Kunst in Eindhoven in 2009) is the third in a row named after an album by the American jazz musician Ornette Coleman, founder of free jazz in the period between 1950- and 1960. The unconventional structure, change and agility of Coleman’s music are exemplary for the associative manner in which S.M.A.K. deals with its collection. The musicality of the S.M.A.K. collection also breaks with standards and patterns and corrects the dictated canon.